The General (1927) (AV Channel)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Introduction-David Robinson (Film Historian) Featurette-Recording the Joe Hisaishi Score Featurette-Restoration Of The General Trailer-Playtime, Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, Spirited Away Trailer-Russian Ark Short Film-The Railrodder (1965) Featurette-Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965) Featurette-Filming The General Featurette-Tinted Version Of The General (Excerpts) Featurette-Orson Welles Introduction Filmographies-Cast-Buster Keaton Video Filmography Featurette-The Return Of The General (1962) Trailer-The Great Locomotive Chase Short Film-The Iron Mule (1925) Short Film-Alice's Tin Pony (1925) - Animation By Walt Disney Short Film-Cops (1922)
Rating
Year Of Production	1927
Running Time	78:12 (Case: 75)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (55:49) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Clyde Bruckman Buster Keaton
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Marion Mack Charles Henry Smith Richard Allen Glen Cavender Jim Farley Frederick Vroom Joe Keaton Mike Donlin Tom Nawn Buster Keaton
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$34.95	Music	Robert Israel William P. Perry

    By all accounts The General was not a major success when originally released, but since then it has risen in reputation to the extent that it regularly appears in lists of the greatest films ever made. One such poll of international critics in 1995 ranked it at number 31. The storyline is quite simple. Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) is a Southern train engineer at the start of the Civil War. He is rejected for military service with the Confederate army. Unbeknownst to him, it's because his skills are required on the railroad. His girl Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) thinks he has refused to enlist and forbids him to speak to her until he is wearing a uniform. A couple of years pass. A group of Union soldiers conceive a daring raid to steal a locomotive from the South, and as you would expect they decide on The General, Johnnie's engine. When they steal the train and several carriages behind it, they inadvertently take Annabelle, who is en route to find her wounded father. Johnnie doesn't know Annabelle is on board, but determined to recover The General he commandeers another locomotive and sets out in pursuit.

    Loosely based on a true Civil War incident later dramatised by the Disney studios in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), the film is a beautifully constructed comedy that is not only extremely funny, fast-paced and exciting, but is also a triumph of film-making. The scenes shot on board the moving trains are remarkable by any standards, with Keaton putting himself in harm's way many times. A second train on a parallel track was used to shoot some lengthy scenes as for example Johnnie attempts to use a mobile cannon and as he removes obstacles from the tracks in front of the train by any means he can. These are shots that simply could not be made today without the use of digital effects, or at least enormous insurance premiums on the actors.

    Like in many of Keaton's silent features (College is a good example), the characters turn full circle, as Johnnie goes from being the chaser to the chased, and manages to repeat, invert and improve on a lot of the gags used earlier in the film. But the gags are never included at the expense of the story, which is one of the more believable Civil War stories ever filmed. The production design is remarkable, with nothing looking anachronistic or out of place - Keaton studied the photographs of Matthew Brady as a guide to the appearance of people at the time. The movie also includes what was to that time the most expensive single take in the history of the cinema, with a full-sized locomotive plunging from a burning bridge into a river.

    This movie deserves all of the accolades it has received and then some. Finally it receives a full digital restoration and can now be seen in something approximating its original glory.

Video

    This is a superb transfer in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    There are occasional faint scratches and flickering together with grain at varying levels. But apart from this, the film has never looked sharper or cleaner, at least not in my lifetime. Restored from the best surviving materials, the transfer is sharp and detailed, often looking as good as films made years later. There are inevitable problems where the materials used were not in perfect condition, but a digital clean-up has removed most of the damage. Contrast is very good and even shadow detail is satisfactory.

    No subtitles are provided for the main feature. The film comes on an RSDL-formatted disc with the layer change not ideally placed at 55:49.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    According to the case, there are two audio tracks, being Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. That much is correct. The case indicates that there is a new surround score created by Joe Hisaishi, and a 1995 score by Robert Israel. The 5.1 track is certainly the Hisaishi, and so it turns out is the 2.0 score. The Israel score does not appear on this disc.

    This is of course a silent film, so there is no dialogue to comment on. The score by Hisaishi is surprisingly good, carrying the action well and sounding idiomatic. It seems Hisaishi decided to let his music accompany rather than overwhelm the movie, something the Maria Newmans and Alloy Orchestras of this world would do well to emulate. Some of the music, including the main theme, is quite memorable, though I did not like the use of the theme for a song in French which is heard over the closing credits. It rather spoils the mood.

    The recording, made in 2004, is very good and the transfer makes excellent use of all six channels. The recording fidelity is excellent, and with considerable low frequency material well integrated into the overall sound mix this is pretty much demonstration quality for a silent film score.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Disc One:

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The main menu has some animation using scenes from the film and also has some of the music score.

Introduction-David Robinson (Film Historian) (5:48)

    As in the Chaplin Collection series, Robinson narrates an introduction to the film which is informative and well worth watching.

Featurette-Recording the Joe Hisaishi Score (7:37)

    This is footage of the composer conducting the recording, plus some footage of the song being recorded.

Featurette-Restoration of The General (2:08)

    This is a brief series of restoration demonstrations narrated in French with English subtitles.

Trailer-Playtime, Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, Spirited Away Trailer-Russian Ark (9:36)

    Trailers for other Madman releases.

Disc Two:

    There is a problem here. Menus in my experience usually have some sort of highlight that shows you where the cursor is positioned. There was none shown on my player, though when played back on my DVD-ROM I could see a red highlight. On my DVD player I had to guess where I was up to.

The Railrodder (24:50)

    A 1965 dialogue-free comedy made by the The National Film Board of Canada. Buster plays a man who travels to Canada and crosses the country on one of those small motorised rail cars, having various adventures. In good condition, with nice colour, this short would probably not stand up to repeated viewing. But Buster still has the ability in his late sixties to perform physical and apparently dangerous comedy.

Buster Keaton Rides Again (55:30)

    A black and white making-of documentary about The Railrodder than runs more than twice as long as its subject. It's actually better, as it shows a lot of behind the scenes footage of the star and highlights some of the problems of the shooting. It is also fairly sad, as Buster chain smokes and his wife complains about his bronchitis: he was probably already in the early stages of the lung cancer that would kill him in early 1966 (the film was shot in late 1964).

Filming The General (1:19)

    Some silent behind the scenes footage from The General.

Tinted Version (6:44)

    Excerpts showing some scenes tinted in blue or sepia.

Introduction by Orson Welles (10:47)

    In the early 1970s Welles presented a series of silent films on television, and this is his introduction and postscript to the presentation of The General. It looks like it was shot in 16mm and Welles does go on a bit. Some clips are included from some of Keaton's early films.

Buster Keaton Video Filmography (11:32)

    Brief excerpts from the comedian's silent features.

Return of the General (10:52)

    This silent colour documentary made in the early 1960s shows the restoration of the real General in preparation for the Civil War Centennial of 1961, plus the cross-country tour the locomotive made.

Trailer - The Great Locomotive Chase (3:55)

    A trailer for the Disney version of the story.

The Iron Mule (13:28)

    Keaton originally started in movies with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in 1917, playing a second or third banana to the star along with Arbuckle's nephew Al St John. Later St John made comedies of his own, and this is one of them, a 1925 take-off of John Ford's silent Western The Iron Horse. Keaton is supposedly in this in a cameo as one of the Indians, but I can't spot him.

Alice's Tin Pony (6:05)

    A real curio. A very early Disney short from 1925, which is mainly animation involving a train and a character who looks a lot like Felix the Cat, but also has some rudimentary live action in the form of Alice.

Cops (18:16)

    Keaton's classic 1922 comedy about a young man who falls foul of the police and ends up being chased by hundreds of them. The print looks a little blurry.

    The Region 4 seems to be a direct port of the mk2 Region 2 release from France. If you have that release, there's no sense in buying the Region 4. If you don't, there's no sense in not buying the Region 4.

    The previous Region 4 release from Force Video was a direct copy of the UK Region 2 release from Eureka. I am given to understand that this was either a transfer from the US laserdisc edition or an NTSC to PAL conversion of the Image Region 1 release. In either case, it is no match for the new Region 4. It included only Cops and The Balloonatic as extras.

    The US Region 1 releases were from Image (coupled with Steamboat Bill Jr.) and Kino, the latter having the lesser video quality. Both are sepia toned and nowhere near as clear and sharp as the new version. The Kino has the shorts The Playhouse and Cops as extras.

    The choice is clear. The new version is the one to get.

    Sublime comedy from the master of physical humour. All done without making faces.

    The video quality is excellent, all things considered.

    The audio quality is excellent. Pity about the missing alternative score though.

    A lot of very good extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall